Clifford Chance London head Bickerton runs unopposed in second term

Clifford Chance’s current London managing partner David Bickerton is set to take up a second term after running unopposed.

David Bickerton

Bickerton is expected to be formerly voted in again at the end of the month after an uncontested election was launched last week. Partners were told that he would be running uncontested at the beginning of the month, immediately followed by the opening of an online vote.

The poll will close at the end of next week when Bickerton is expected to take up a second four-year term.

According to sources inside the firm, Bickerton’s re-election was a “foregone conclusion”. One source said: “Nobody’s got any desire to challenge him, overall he’s doing a good job.”

Despite being an uncontested process, the constitution requires partners to vote each candidate in electronically.

The election was kicked off by the nominations committee in October which began a ‘soundings process’, with partners invited to nominate themselves or put someone else forward via email (4 November 2013).

As no other contenders emerged the process went straight to the vote. The second term will be Bickerton’s last in the London managing partner role – the CC constitution only allows two terms in office.

He took over as London head in 2009 following then London litigation chief Jeremy Sandelson, who went on to take up the global litigation head role.

But earlier in the year it looked like Bickerton’s rein could be called to an end sooner, when questions were raised over whether he would be running for the global managing partner position currently up for grabs (18 March 2013).

In the end the race came down to Paris chief Yves Wehrli, global corporate head Matthew Layton and London real estate finance partner Andrew Carnegie. That decision is also expected imminently (25 October 2013).